Courtyard Planters
Business of the Week, Hardware & Gardening, Paint, hardware & gardening
Some people like to put down deep roots – in more ways than one. Take Katie Burnett, co-owner of Westgate’s Courtyard Planters alongside her husband, Tom Williams.
The boutique garden centre and plant nursery is tucked away in a courtyard that was once the stable yard of the Half Moon Inn, with buildings dating back to the 1750s. The inn closed in the early 1970s, with Katie’s family acquiring the buildings around the courtyard and moving in to make it a home when she was just learning to walk.
Fast forward a couple of decades and Katie returned her Otley home after studying politics, history and French at Canterbury. Alongside Tom – also Otley-born and originally a geologist, with a landscape gardener for a father – she moved into one of the other courtyard buildings, renovating it into a family home.
A stint working in office jobs left the pair unsettled. They’d created this lovely space and, frankly, did not want to leave it every morning. And so they decided to create an onsite business.
Katie took a short RHS-style correspondence course in gardening and the pair began selling planters in 2005, quite literally from their front yard. What started as a passion project soon became a thriving business offering plants, pots, garden accessories and expert advice, as well as, in the pre-Covid era at least, a programme of gardening classes.
As Courtyard Planters grew, Katie and Tom decided to become their own suppliers. They initially hired polytunnels near what was then Stephen H. Smith’s garden centre before acquiring Silver Mill Riding Stables.
It is a lovely, calm spot on the foothills of the Chevin, where wildflowers grow, honeybees thrive and Katie and Tom now produce around 20,000 plants each year for sale through Courtyard Planters and to other businesses.
Much of what they grow is particularly well suited to the realities of gardening in Yorkshire, where plants may be expected to contend with heavy soil, enthusiastic rainfall and the occasional rabbit with absolutely no respect for carefully planned borders. Their locally grown plants include a wide selection of herbaceous perennials, many raised using peat-free compost.
Katie and Tom’s roots in Otley stretch well beyond the family home and business. For many years they were heavily involved with Otley in Bloom, helping to organise projects and improve planting around the town.
That commitment has continued through Katie’s work chairing Otley BID, where she has put an enormous amount of time and energy into supporting local businesses, promoting the town centre and helping to make Otley an even better place to visit, shop and spend time.
It is a considerable contribution, particularly while also running a busy business and nursery. Then again, when you have spent most of your life in the same historic Otley courtyard, perhaps putting something back into the town just comes naturally.
- Listing ID: 577